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Web 2.0: Searching Innovations - Description

With the 2.0 revolution, almost everything on the web seems to have become social, shared, collaborative, and focused on fun. For many of us in libraries, this shift to user-built content and trusting the wisdom of crowds seems chaotic, out-of-control, and threatening to our values for quality information and manageable services.

Do you wonder where the 2.0 phenomenon is taking the web and the world of information?

Do you know how to sift the worthwhile 2.0 content from the trivial?

Do the wikisphere and the blogosphere seem promising, but you aren't sure how to find what's reliable and useful?

Are you curious how Google is changing and where Google is going?

Do you know the unique search strengths of Ask.com, MSN's Live Search, and other alternatives to Google?

Do you know the practical value of special and clustering search engines like IceRocket, Technorati, Topica, and Mooter?

Have you discovered the most timesaving uses for tags, RSS feeds, page monitors, and other new web tools?

Are you concerned how to keep up with it all?

In this course you will explore the questions above and others in practical, everyday applications. You will become acquainted with the major 2.0 media spaces and how to search their content effectively. You will learn to use, find, and build customized meta-search engines to drill vertically into almost any area of interest with a web presence. You will harness the convenience of RSS feeds, page monitors, and alerts to help you keep current.

Workshop Description: This is an all-day, hands-on workshop. Through individual and group exercises and cheat sheets you will gain both an orientation to and experience in using and searching the principal 2.0 services and media spaces. You will explore the best tools for finding information in many formats in the expanded 2.0 web. You will learn practical applications that will increase your efficiency using social bookmarking, RSS feeds, and other tools. The instructor will provide a webliography to help you keep up after the course.

Pre-workshop assignment: We ask that everyone who registers for this course create their own del.icio.us and Bloglines accounts before coming to the sessions, as there will not be time in class to go through this process. Instructions for creating the accounts can be downloaded here: PDF - Word.

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